Polymath Redux

Chapter 34: That one day this nation will rise up!

"There can be no such thing! Those malignant bastards must not be given more power!"

Hook, line and sinker.

All eyes had turned towards the Grand Cardinal, Lazzaro Zeder who had stepped out of the crowds to violently voice his objections. His unsightly intentions of full display which was unbecoming of him; however the one most annoyed was the king whose authority had been overstepped by the Grand Cardinal's sudden outbreak. Even though it was a tough decision it was the king's to make, not the Grand Cardinal's.

"Grand Cardinal Lazzaro Zeder, it is not your place to speak out."

The king glared at him with an intense stare from up above his throne. With merely a single look the unsightly Grand Cardinal had turned into a meek puppy. Cold sweat ran through his back as he just noticed that everyone else's glares were on him too.

"Your majesty, if I may interject. Though it may not have been the Grand Cardinal's place to speak out I do believe his opinions should also be taken into consideration. In fact I believe if anyone has any objections they want to make they should speak out now as this is a decision that requires unanimous support in order for it to work."

Morgana spoke out, though it may have seemed as though she had just saved him from being reprimanded it was far from the case. There were three reasons why Morgana had chosen to defend the Grand Cardinal, the first reason was that it was necessary to identify the parties that were opposed to a human-demon collaboration. It was a well known fact that most of the nobles weren't fond of the demons but it was a good idea to see just how many were in opposition. Allowing the situation to turn into an open forum discussion was the best follow up to achieve this.

The second reason was that it was necessary to dispel the discrimination that these people had with the demon race. Most of them despised them due to systematic reasons; because they had been raised to believe so. The notion that hearts and minds wouldn't change overnight applied because those people haven't experienced it firsthand. So what happens when there was a war right in front of your doorstep and the people you thought you hated came to your defense? Would you still hate them? Wouldn't that only make you look petty if you still kept that firm belief of hatred?

Right now was the perfect opportunity to shut down all arguments against the demon race and thus slowly eliminating the discrimination.

The third reason was to help the king. Morgana's proposal was indeed an extremely difficult one to accept, anyone could tell that was the case, so by turning this into an open forum and slowly changing the opinions of the nobles the king could easily make the decision to accept Morgana's proposal without having him suffer any reputational damage, thereby increasing the king's reliance on Morgana in the future.

The king nodded after some contemplation.

"Very well then, we shall turn this into an open forum discussion. All those against having the demon aid with the capital's reconstruction speak your piece. All silence will be considered approval for Morgana's proposal."

The throne room once more descended into chatter before a minor noble came up to speak.

"Hiring demons would cost money, money that has gone into the purchasing of materials for the reconstruction. Though it may be slow, the reconstruction is proceeding in the most efficient manner in terms of cost."

"Yes, but that is only if you take into consideration that we'll still be putting money into our defenses. As I had proposed earlier the excess funds will come from diverting that money from defense into reconstruction. Should my proposal be acknowledged then the defense of the city will be handled by the siege golems which has numerous advantages over flesh and blood soldiers. For one they do not require rest and can operate on a perpetual schedule and secondly they will be far more effective against any potential invasion, and thirdly their detection rate is much better than that of an average soldier."